My Everlasting Love
by runaway xo
Summary: After Alice has a vision of Bella crying, Edward tries to discover the reason behind her shed tears and misty eyes. One-Shot.


**Another one-shot!**

**TAKES PLACE AFTER NEW MOON AND BEFORE ECLIPSE. **

**This is an idea that's been bugging me for a few days :) **

**I orginally wrote it in Bella's POV but I didn't like how it turned out so I tried Edward's.**

**I hope you like it! **

**Enjoy!**

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**Everlasting Love**

**(Edward POV)**

If there was a human around to witness me, I would appear to be but a blur. My feet flew soundlessly across the verdant forest floor. The lingering sense of dread that had been my first reaction to Alice's thoughts was suddenly doubled as I came upon the small house, it's interior uncommonly dark.

I didn't bother to knock, or retrieve the key from beneath the mat, I simply shoved past the wooden door – not enough to damage the wood, but forceful enough to snap the lock. Quickly locating her potent scent, I skillfully maneuvered myself into her living room.

And there she was. I stopped, evaluating the situation as I watched her eyes, trained on the bright light of the television screen. A blanket was balled beneath her chin, her hands grasping it as the silent tears dribbled down her cheek. My instinct to comfort her emerged immediately.

"Bella?"

What I wasn't prepared for, was her reaction. Her usually warm brown eyes flew to mine, her gaze failing to conceal sudden panic. Faster then I would have thought possible for a human, Bella lunged from the couch. My body froze as she stumbled, but her feet managed to catch up with the rest of her body as she fumbled with the remote.

I had to admit, she was quick but probably not as quick as she would have liked. I caught a glimpse of the picture on the television screen before it flickered off, leaving us in the darkness. I quickly turned on the light switch, pausing at the entrance to the room, staring at her. She still had the remote in her hand and was quickly smearing the tears on her cheeks with her forearm.

A part of me quickly relaxed, my fear dispersing as I quickly examained her, pleasured by the obvious fact that her blood had not been spilled anywhere other than her delicate cheeks. The other part of me still shuddered at the very thought that she had had a reason to cry in the first place.

"Edward," she croaked softly, shrugging her shoulder to her chin, desperately trying to remove all traces of her shed tears. "I thought you went hunting."

I crossed the room quickly, hesitantly reaching out with my finger to trap a tear she had somehow missed.

"Alice had a vision," I stated, my tone ambiguous. My fingers danced down the side of her warm cheek, my worry evident.

"I was just watching a sad movie," she verified, her tone suggesting that she had hoped the conversation would just end there.

"What movie?"

The hand that was pressed against her cheek noticed the return of her blush before my eyes did. She dropped her eyes, peering at the remote she still held in her hand. "I can't – I don't want to tell you," she confessed softly.

A small shock of pain coursed through my veins. Did she not know she could tell me anything? "Why?"

Her eyes peered at me cautiously through her thick lashes. The beautiful black fringe still held diamonds of moisture and her gaze unfailingly captured me.

"I'm afraid you'll be angry," she whispered. Her eyes fell along with her head as she leaned into my chest. I could feel the small caress of her breathing against my thin shirt, so close to my cold skin it took all the control in the world not to shiver with the unadulterated pleasure.

"I still want to know," I told her, curiosity outweighing my fear at her obvious discomfort of sharing something as simple as what movie she had been watching.

Bella hesitated, and it wasn't until she pulled away from my chest that I noticed she was biting her lip. My inquisitiveness doubled as she walked slowly towards the VCR player, I backed up and landed silently on her sofa. The old machine groaned as she pressed the eject button, waiting patiently for it to give up the tape. She reluctantly took the cassette and walked back towards me, placing it remorsefully into my palm. Before I looked at it, I reached for her, pulling her onto my lap, showing her just how impossible it was for me to be angry with her.

She sighed at my gesture, though it was a happy sigh, there was a tone of anxiety beneath it. I kissed her cheek gently before I glanced down at the tape. I read the name of the movie, once, twice, three times, though it didn't seem to be familiar. I frowned, wondering why Bella had such apprehension towards showing it to me, was I suppose to recognize it?

"What is, _Tuck Everlasting_?"

Bella's brow puckered as she scrutinized my confused expression. "Surely you've heard of the book?"

I searched my mind once more, shuffling and flipping through over one hundred years of information, but the name was unfamiliar. I tried to pick up a hint from the scene that was playing when I had arrived, just before Bella scrambled to veil it from my eyes. The picture had been of a gravestone, but that didn't help me in the least. "No," I answered truthfully.

Bella smiled weakly, as if this fact brought her great relief. "Really Edward, it _is _a classic."

I mimicked her smile and rolled my eyes. "Bella, I'll have you know I'm not familiar with every classic ever written."

She was silent for a moment so I flipped the cassette around in my hand, toying with it before I asked, "What is the story about?"

Her earlier relief was quickly overshadowed by her dismay. "Are you _sure _you want to know?" She challenged, her brown eyes seemingly beginning to grow deeper as I stared at them.

I nodded my head and she sighed, her eyes returning to the hands she had resting in her lap.

"It's about a young girl," she began, her voice just a soft murmur, "Named Winnie Foster. Winnie's parents are very wealthy, and she is raised to be proper, never the type of girl who would run away from home. But Winnie is… unhappy. She yearns for a sense of… freedom."

I noticed Bella's struggle for words so I placed my hand on her back and began to rub gentle circles. She peered up and me and smiled gratefully. I returned the smile and nodded for her to continue.

"So one day, she runs away. Into the forest bordering her family's house. That's where she meets Jesse." Bella's heart accelerated mildly, though I didn't interrupt her, I wanted to hear this story. "She catches him drinking water out of a small pool at the base of a tree, and asks to have a sip. He's strangely hostile towards her, telling her the water is poison, and that she can not have a drink."

I may have imagined it, but at the word _poison_, I could have sworn Bella's eyes flickered towards me.

"Jesse's brother Miles overhears the conversation and appears with his horse, capturing Winnie and bringing her back to the house, where she meets the Tucks." I could detect the edge in her tone, and could feel my frustration climax as she fell silent.

"And the Tucks are… different?" I guessed calmly.

"The Tuck's are everlasting," she murmured finally.

I tired to collect my erratic thoughts, none of them making much sense. A prolonged moment of silence passed before I dared to speak. "How did they come to be, _everlasting_?"

"The pool of water that Jesse had been drinking from when Winnie had found him. The Tucks had drank that same water many years ago, unknowingly making them immortal."

"And Winnie wants to drink the water?" I guessed again, my tone bleak. "So she can be immortal?"

Bella dropped her gaze, and intertwined her hands, pulling them apart and re-twisting them for a few moments before she answered. "She fell in love."

I could now easily perceive the kind of emotional connection Bella felt with this female character. I thought back over our conversation, and picked up on something, hesitating before asking her. "How old is the male character? Jesse?"

"Well, on the Earth, all together," she clarified carefully, "He's been alive for one-hundred and four years." She glanced at me before continuing, "But in appearance, he's seventeen."

I frowned. It amazed me at how coincidental the whole situation seemed. I still felt like I missing part of the story though.

"Bella?" I asked unwillingly, suddenly frightened of what kind of feelings her answer would unfetter. Though I already had a clue. "What happens to Winnie?"

A look of pain flashed across Bella's face and she dropped her head immediately. I could see her fingers become red as her fiddling continued. I reached down and grasped them carefully. She looked up and followed with her eyes up my arm and my neck, finally meeting my own gaze.

The image of the gravestone appeared in my mind and I winced.

She compared her life to the character through out the whole story, only to discover that the character hadn't received the happy ending I'm sure Bella had been hoping for.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me," I murmured, pulling her closer. Her warm cheek pressed against my chest once more and she let out a shaky breath.

Did she believe I would do that to her? Leave her and visit her gravestone a couple of decades later, muttering _what a shame, what a shame. _Did she honestly believe that?

If her totally concealed, beautifully innocent mind truly believed I would leave her now, her lack of knowledge about the boundless captivation she had on me was lucid. I had tried to live without her, finding out quickly that it was nearly impossible. I would not live without her, I _couldn't_.

Though I could also see this Jesse character's outlook, it was the one I frequently, and originally had during the subject of Bella's mortality. She _deserved _a life. Just like Winnie she deserved to mature. She deserved to have babies with another man. She deserved to learn all the wonderful things about life. She deserved to grow old with someone, and reminisce about the wonderful life she lived. She deserved to go to heaven, and become the angel that she truly was. She deserved much more then I could give her. Much, much more.

Thoughts swirled around my head and a strange feeling developed in the pit of my stomach. I knew from hearing enough human minds that this uncomfortable sensation was envy. As ridiculous as it sounds, I found myself _jealous _of the Jesse character. How much simpler my choice would be if our predicament was merely between mortality and immortality, rather than defying _humanity _to become a bloodthirsty vampire.

I sighed lightly as I resurfaced from my impending thoughts, gazing down at the fragile girl in my arms. Her breathing heavy, and her heart beating profoundly as the panic ate away at her. She was afraid of what my mind had formulated when I was silent. The feeling was mutual.

"I don't want to be like Winnie," Bella whispered suddenly. "Or like Wendy who barely got a taste of Neverland."

Another story she managed to compare us too?

"I –" she paused, her eyes flickering up to mine, "I want to have my own story, Edward. One where I –" she paused again, a strangled breath brushing past her lips as her eyes glistened. "I don't want to settle for anything less than forever."

Her hand found mine and she pressed her warm palm against it.

Bella deserved the world, the sun, the moon.

Bella deserved the stars.

Bella deserved everything…

Except the very thing she was asking for.

The video cassette was still in my hand so I carelessly tossed it to the other end of the couch. I cradled Bella closer in my arms, closing my eyes as her heartbeats played a song.

I kissed her forehead before resting my own gently against it. Her significant brown eyes penetrated through me somehow, the closeness of her face unbelieving as I lost myself in those dark orbs. Her scent wrapped around me, though not like sheet of steel digging into my skin, as her scent had once resembled, but like a soft blanket, warming me, holding me, loving me.

"You are truly," I murmured finally, "My everlasting love."

**Reviews are appreciated! :) **


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